Certain aquatic species of microorganisms are toxic in high concentrations to animals and even some plants. Under certain natural or anthropogenically-enhanced conditions, typically seasonal and eutrophic conditions, these harmful species can multiply rapidly and occur in high concentrations resulting in a “bloom” of harmful phytoplankton. The concentration may be so high that visibility in water is limited to a few centimeters. Under such conditions, contact with or consumption of anything in contact with the bloom can be harmful to humans and biota.
Particularly notorious are blooms of many species of cyanobacteria in fresh, brackish and salt water. While many cyanobacterial blooms are nuisances, other species produce toxins that are harmful to people, animals and plants are exposed to or consume the bloom containing waters and to humans and animals that eat them. Toxic cyanobacteria blooms occur worldwide and are associated with human respiratory irritation, taste and odor of potable water, and human illness as a result of ingestion or skin exposure during recreational activities. Pets, domestic animals, and wildlife are also affected by exposure to cyanotoxins. Toxins produced by cyanobacteria can be found in water bodies used for drinking, aquaculture, crop irrigation, and recreation. Toxigenic cyanobacteria include Microcystis aeruginosa, Nodularia spumigena and various species of Anabeena, Nostoc and Planktothrix. These microorganisms produce a number of different neurotoxins and hepatotoxins and can end in rapid death or a neurodegenerative condition. In particular, BMAA producing species may cause a condition resembling ALS/Parkinsons/dementia complex.
Blooms of non-cyanobacteria include Alexandrium fundyense that frequently occurs in the Gulf of Maine. This dinoflagellate produces saxitoxin, the neurotoxin responsible for paralytic shellfish poisoning. Blooms of Pseudo-nitzschia, a diatom, occur in the California coastal waters and are known to produce domonic acid, the neurotoxin responsible for amnesic shellfish poisoning. Blooms of by Karenia brevis, another dinoflagellate, produce the “Florida red tide” that occurs in the Gulf of Mexico. This organism produces brevetoxin, the neurotoxin responsible for neurotoxic shellfish poisoning. Some harmful blooms are not even composed of photosynthetic organisms such as Pfisteria and Myrionecta rubra (previously known as Mesodinium rubrum). Relatively less harmful large algae have caused blooms, such as those of sea lettuce in Qingdao, China, in 2013.
Harmful algal blooms have increased in frequency and size in recent decades and the health, environmental and economic impact of these blooms is the topic of much study. The United Nations through UNESCO has even established the Global Ecology and Oceanography of Harmful Algal Blooms (GEOHAB) for this purpose.
In the United States, the direct economic cost of freshwater degraded by harmful algal blooms is estimated at $64 million annually. Additionally, the costs of losses in salt water and estuary fishing, shellfish harvest, the medical costs due to sickness and death resulting from the harmful algal blooms and tourism losses from closed beaches are substantial but difficult to estimate. On Aug. 12, 2014 the water supply for over 400,000 people in and around Toledo, Ohio was stopped because of a cyanobacter bloom near the water intake. Not having access to water may cost little but the inconvenience is great.
Harmful algal blooms rapidly expand, contract and move due to many causes. Attempts have been made to monitor the presence of harmful blooms. NOAA had developed a “Harmful Algal Bloom Forecast” is based on collecting individual observation in the “beach conditions report” and analyzing data to develop a forecast. This system is based on human reports of observed beach conditions and testing of water samples which are only determined after the algal bloom has reached the beach.
While satellite imaging is an established field, historically, few decisions regarding water quality rely on satellite images. The rapidly changing nature of water quality and relatively slow dissemination and analysis of satellite information has prevented significant use other than retrospective studies.
There are two main operating software packages that are considered the standard in water quality satellite observations, also referred to as ocean color. The first software package is SeaDAS available for free from NASA. The second software package is BEAM available from the European Space Agency for free. Both software packages are desktop based and require significant scientific expertise in the field of ocean color remote sensing. These software packages provide essential processing, display, analysis, and quality control functions for scientific research. The software also requires large hard drive space and memory to handle the raw satellite images and processing capabilities. In addition computer code language expertise is required to manipulate the satellite data; languages typically include Interactive Data Language, Python or JAVA. These software packages produce derived water quality products such as chlorophyll concentration. However, the software to date is primarily geared toward the scientific research community and is not intuitive for decision makers and those who make day-to-day decisions.
Ocean Color satellites capture temporal and spatial imagery of coastal areas, estuarine and inland waters. These images can reveal concentrations of environmental parameters. Today, this data is accessible to scientists, but the amount of data is large and to process the data requires considerable computer processing ability and time. This relevant information is not processed and delivered to official users in a manner that demonstrates its practical value to daily life.
In order to provide meaningful information about nuisance and harmful algal blooms and other water quality parameters for decision makers in a timely manner and to overcome the previous problems, the following invention was made.